


Dating?

by thearchangelofsass



Category: Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 03:11:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15379410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thearchangelofsass/pseuds/thearchangelofsass
Summary: Steve is forced to hang out with Aja and Krel and it unwittingly turns into a vocabulary lesson.





	Dating?

            "Of course I believe you,” Steve says. “I mean Arcadia already has trolls. Why not aliens?”

            Eli frowns as he paces the length of his bedroom. “Then why won’t you do it?” Eli fixes Steve with a look and Steve finds himself freezing up. In the same weird way that they’ve become fast friends, Steve finds it harder and harder to refuse Eli anything, especially when those warm brown eyes give him a disapproving, half joking but half not, look.

            “W-well if they are aliens, do you really think that they’re just gonna give that up in conversation?” Steve asks. He crosses his arms. “They probably have all kinds of training to not reveal themselves to humans.”

            “Toby said they Aja and Krel helped them hack the Arcadia power grid to catch lightning in a bottle. Even if they aren’t the aliens, they definitely know something.” Eli says. “Whatever it is, we have to get to the bottom of it. And the first step is talking to them.”

            “If it’s so easy, why don’t you do it?” Steve sees Eli’s eyes drop, and his face immediately softens. Steve goes over to the other boy and puts his hand on Eli’s shoulder. “What’s up?”

            Eli sighs. “I was going to tell you later.” He pushes his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I’m hanging out with Toby today.”

            “What?” Steve gasps with faux melodrama. “You’re cheating on me with Domzalski?”

            Eli doesn’t laugh. “He said he’s finally ready to talk about the big troll battle, and where Jim and Claire are.”

            “Oh.” Steve goes quiet. It’s been less than a month since an army of evil trolls and eternal darkness wreaked havoc on the streets of Arcadia, but it’s hard to remember what life was like before. Steve and Eli had been there in the thick of the fighting, but they hadn’t quite known what was happening and Toby hadn’t been super forthcoming with the details. They’d guessed that it was related to Jim and Claire suddenly skipping town to ‘study abroad,’ but again, no one had told them anything. Until now.

            “Yeah,” Eli says. “And Toby kiiinda asked me to come alone.”

            Steve nods grimly. “I get that.” By his own admission, Steve’s been a massive dick to Toby, Jim, and Claire in the past. He’s been doing a lot better since opening up to coach and trying out therapy, but there’s still a lot of stuff he needs to work through. He totally gets why Toby might not want to talk about something super sensitive about his two best friends leaving with him present.

            “Sorry,” Eli mumbles.

            “Don’t be,” Steve says, shaking his head. “I was the one who was a buttsnack.” He flashes a quick smile. “I’ll go hang out with our two resident alien weirdos. You be there for Toby.”

            “Thanks Steve!” Eli has the biggest grin on his face and Steve can’t help but think that he’d do just about anything for a smile like that, especially coming from Eli.

…

           

           No matter how much he cares about Eli, Steve feels like his limits are being tested to the max by Aja and Krel. They were almost too enthusiastic to hang out when Steve ran into them at the library, and they wanted to go to a ‘teen center’ that Jim and Claire had supposedly shown them inside of an old travel agency building. Like what? They finally agreed to go get ice cream at the new Cold Stone that had just opened up by the park, but even that had turned out strangely. Aja had gotten a cone and was eating out of it with a spoon while Krel had insisted that she was eating it wrong and proceeded to get a cup while licking the ice cream out of it, like a little kid. And throughout this entire journey, Steve hadn’t gotten a single piece of even remotely useful information that could be related to aliens.

            “What flavor did you get, Steve?” Krel asks.

            “Cookie dough,” Steve says, breaking out of his annoyed reverie.

            “Cookie dough?” Krel puts his hand on his chin, a thinking look on his face. “Is there actual cookie dough in the ice cream?”

            Steve nods warily.

            “Then couldn’t you hypothetically bake the ice cream, and get ice cream cookies?” Krel has a grin like he’s just cracked an age-old mystery, while Steve struggles to maintain his composure.

            “Maybe,” Steve replies with a shrug. He is _so_ complaining about this to Eli later.

            “So Steve,” Aja says, “if you are not a big fan of the ‘teen center,’ what else is there for fun during the summer. I know this town is _totally_ lively.”

            “Riiiight,” Steve says. “Well honestly there isn’t a huge party or dating scene in Arcadia, but the city will put on events like the street fair in July and the sports teams usually do casual practices over the summer. Uh…” Steve feels like he should be able to name more things, especially in a town literally built over an underground magical city of trolls, but he truly can’t think of anything else off of the top of his head right now.

           “What is this ‘dating’ that you mention?” Aja asks.

           Steve raises an eyebrow. “You guys don’t have dating in…wherever it is you’re from?”

           “Cantaloupia,” Krel answers quickly. “Our customs are quite different to those of your municipality.”

           “Ookay.” Steve replies. “Well dating is…dating. Like a boyfriend/girlfriend thing. You know?”

           Aja’s blank expression indicates that she does not, in fact, know.

           “But what does this ‘dating’ entail?” Krel asks. “Is there a ritual or a blood contract? I know humans are very big on those.”

           “In like the eighteen-hundreds,” Steve mutters disbelievingly. “Well when you’re dating someone you care about them. A lot. You spend a lot of time with them because being around them  makes you a happier and better person. And obviously you go on dates with them.”

           “But a date is a number that marks time,” Aja remarks. “How can you be ‘on’ a date?”

           “No no no,” Steve says, shaking his head. “A date is like taking someone to the movies, or ice cream, or a picnic or some romantic blah blah like that.”

           “Steve,” Krel’s face is suddenly quite serious. “Are we on a date right now? Because I am _not_ comfortable with my sister being present if you are about to romance me.”

           Steve splutters, choking on his ice cream. “Absolutely not,” Steve says. “We are just _friends_ who are _hanging out._ ”

           Aja nods thoughtfully as she scoops more ice cream out of her cone. “So are you dating Eli, then?”

           Steve freezes up for a moment before shaking his head vigorously. “Come on,” he says shakily. “Eli and I are just…buds. You know?”

           Aja squints at him. “I am not sure what a ‘bud’ is, but you spend a lot of time together, do you not?”

           “Well yea, but we’re ju—”

           “And didn’t we see you guys at the movies just a few days ago?”

           Steve has to nod his head to that question. He can’t very well explain to them that it wasn’t a date because he and Eli were trying to get Creepslayerz recon on the two of them. The facts, which are that the movie was great and he had an amazing time seeing it with Eli, are completely irrelevant to the situation.

          “Yea and you guys are always so happy together,” Krel points out. “He was on your shoulders during my _brilliant_ disk jockeying at the Battle of the Bands.”

          Steve has to take a moment to wonder who else actually uses the word disc jockey in this day and age before responding. “But Eli is just…”

_Dorky, funny, sweet. The person Steve feels the most comfortable being around_.

          “a friend.”

          Aja tilts her head to one side. “A friend that you are dating?” Steve hisses in frustration but doesn’t bother saying anything more, and Aja seems satisfied by that answer.

          “I don’t know about you, sister, but I think we should really be getting home.” Krel says. “Remember our uh- _car_ needs repairing.”

          “You’re right.” Aja stands up, tucking in her chair. “Thank you for the ice cream, Steve. This afternoon was _lively_.”

          “You’re welcome?” Steve returns home in a bewildered daze, wondering how to process what on earth just happened. His instinct is to immediately text Eli, but Steve holds off, walking home in silence. Maybe Aja and Krel aren’t aliens. Maybe they’re just weird. But maybe, just maybe, they’re right about Eli. Maybe Eli is just a friend. Maybe it’s a fluke of the universe that Eli makes every room he walks into brighter. Maybe their hangouts are mostly about creepslaying. But that doesn’t mean Steve doesn’t want them to be dates. So maybe, just maybe, the next time he sees Eli, he’ll tell him that.

**Author's Note:**

> come hang out with me on tumblr @yaolinqs


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